By joining the Center you support programs that build the public’s understanding of railroading in America’s past, present, and future.
Shirley Burman Steinheimer, a 2012 conference speaker, became the first woman photographer honored by the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society with its Fred A. and Jane R. Stindt Photography (2011) Award for accomplishments as a railroad photographer. The award was announced at the conference. Read more.
During the 2012 Conversations about Photography conference, the Center’s board of directors honored John E. Gruber, a founder and only president of the Center, by announcing the renaming of the Center’s awards program, which he helped initiate in 2002. Hereafter it is the John E. Gruber Creative Photography Awards Program.
Chris Starnes of Gate City, Virginia, receives top honors in the Center’s 2012 Creative Photography Awards Program. Entries rose 30 percent over 2011, a tribute to the late Dick Steinheimer whose legacy, “Railroading Inspired by [Dick] Steinheimer,” was the 2012’s competition theme. His widow, Shirley Burman Steinheimer, a railroad photographer and historian of women in railroading, served as the judge this year. See the winners.
The special preservation issue of Railroad Heritage® has drawn widespread attention for excellence of both illustrations and information. The son of one of the nation’s most celebrated photographers has purchased five copies. So do not miss this issue—a collectors’ item. The North American Railway Foundation supported its publication; Trains Newsletter publicized it. An abbreviated version is on the web; copies are for sale.
Selections from the Center’s 2012 Print Program—outstanding work by Bill Botkin and Joel Jensen—are available.
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Photographs from the 2012 Conversations about Photography conference, April 13-15 at Lake Forest, Illinois, by Hank Koshollek. See more of Koshollek’s photos from the conference.
2012 Conference Took Attendees Home and Around the World
Railroading from a home-town perspective to railroading from an around-the-world perspective captivated attendees at the Center’s tenth annual Conversations about Photography conference, April 13-15 at Lake Forest College. The importance of close-at-hand experience to railroad art was emphasized by Tom Fawell of West Chicago, whose paintings derive from his early exposure to them in his backyard. While Henry Posner III held listeners spellbound with his photographs and stories of railroad activities from around the world. On Saturday a near record 157 attendees (160 is the record) participated. Other speakers were Shirley Burman Steinheimer (see the feature at left), Bill Botkin (who also exhibited photographs that elicited high praise), Steve Crise, Christian Goepel, Drake Hokanson, Joel Jensen, Clark Johnson, Richard Solomon, and Chris Starnes. Sponsors were Lake Forest College, the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society (a first-timer), Trains and Classic Trains magazines, Canon, and Railfan & Railroad magazine. Visit the conference page for a more complete overview. Photographs and video clips are coming soon.
Fred Springer Dies
One of America’s leading rail enthusiasts and philanthropists, Fred Springer, died in Santa Fe on April 18 at the age of 83 after a long illness. His family notified friends with an email whose subject line reads “The last train has departed.” The announcement included “words of John Wesley that Fred lived by (and lived up to, though he never thought so himself), ‘Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can!’” The Railway & Locomotive Historical Society recently awarded Springer its 2011 senior achievement award, and a few months ago Springer and his wife, Dale, gave the Center his 87,500 railroad photographs along with a substantial sum to ensure they will be properly processed, housed, and described in a publicly accessible database. The images will be available for research at Lake Forest College’s Donnelley and Lee Library in the archives and special collections. Springer’s photographs range from the 1940s to a few years ago. Read more and see our feature on Trains Magazine’s website.
Profiles of Jack Delano Portrait Subjects
The latest two issues of Railroad Heritage®, numbers 27 and 28, have profiles by John Gruber of two of the fifty-two railroaders whose 1942-43 portraits by Jack Delano are the subject of the Center’s 2013 exhibition at the Chicago History Museum. The men are Jamie W. Edwards of Chillicothe, Illinois, and Tomas Madrigal, a Mexican immigrant, of Blue Island, Illinois. The Madrigal profile notably probes questions of prejudice as well as the railroad’s willingness to hire a “rainbow” of ethnicities and races. The Edwards profile describes how railroaders’ wives often laundered and starched their overalls—a point of pride for both the employees and their wives. Pictures plus a thousand words create a sum greater than their parts.
Joel Jensen Exhibition in Sacramento
You have until July 27 to see exhibition prints of Joel Jensen’s personal selections from his stunning recent book, Steam: An Enduring Legacy. Center president John Gruber, executive director Scott Lothes, and board member Jeff Brouws contributed essays. The photographs appear at California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. The Center is the exhibition’s organizer and distributor; read more on our events page. The exhibition will travel to the Nevada State Railroad Museum next summer.